Page 2 - Dam Failures News Today

Contaminated water due to sewage overflew. despite the obvious problems, there are signs of progress. the lights are back on in town and the water is slowly but surely receding. were not sure whether or not its going to be raining into the coming days and making the situation possibly worse. boris sanchez, cnn, manning, south carolina. joining me on the phone from columbia south carolina is the information officer. i know youre busy. whats the latest assessment of the dam failures and breaches...

You see some of these images out of columbia and just incredible to compare the before and after perspective. we often say you only need 30 centimeters, about one foot of moving water, about six miles per hour to give about 500 pounds of lateral force. it does not take much water to create substantial damage. we know the northern portion of the state, the appalachian mountains rise up to about 3500 feet. farther to the south you bring in the hundreds of rivers and tributaries. the low country, t...

Devastating the damage has been. weather related fatalities are up to 14 with ten dam failures in the state and more on a close watch. governor nikki haley said today that the danger is nowhere near over. >> south carolina has once again proven that we are strong, and we are resilient. we are still in prayer mode. we are still in the fact that the next 36 to 48 hours is going to be volatile. so what well tell you is dont let the sunshine fool you, but we are prepared. >> let me bring in craig me...

On on. we threw our cats in a suitcase. >> reporter: cats in the suitcase. for that woman like many people here were rescued by neighbors. the flood happened so quickly. it was little time for first responders to get here. it was neighbor helping neighbor. >> great way to depict the urgency of all that. folks not out of woods, right? >> reporter: no and the governor stressing this is not over yet. all the water is moving down south. theres been ten different dam failures in the state of south ca...

26,000 families are without power tonight in south carolina, jake. >> all right. boris sanchez, thank you so much. joining me on the phone tom barry, thanks for joining me. we know that there are evacuations near the overcreek dam. what can you tell us about this breach? >> what we have is a system of smaller lakes as part of the gills creek watershed in the arcadia lakes area of rich land county. and what happens is one lake feeds into another, feeds into another, feeds into another. so we know...

Today governor haley warned there is a long road still ahead. >> this is not over. just because the rain stops does not mean that we are out of the woods. we very much still have a vulnerable situation thats out there. im still going to ask citizens to please stay inside. there is still water out there it is going to take a while for this water to go away. >> nbc news is live for us in columbia, south carolina. we are asking you this almost every hour. every minute that goes by is a critical min...

Tom is tracking this in the cnn severe weather center. >> in the last 24 hours, weve had over 30 breaches of dams and levees. many are minor. some my be a fractiure, some ovr topping. five major dam failures, five in the county of richland and three in lexington and one in lee. we have one warning in effect and this is a suburb to the east of capital where a mandatory evacuation is taking place for the breach of a dam. not sure what that breach means. is it over topping? is there water seeping u...

Five total fatalities. three were weather-related. >> and some conflicting reports about dams that have failed. >> okay. well have to defer to -- >> well, we actually have -- either of you can do that. you go first then ill let christy. >> the only thing i can speak to -- im tom allen from the regulatory staff. weve been in constant contact, and the dams, the utmost confidence and structural integrity of the lake murray dams and other structures at this time. thank you, governor. >> i have a que...

so i want people to understand that this is not over. response and recovery efforts will be an ongoing operation. and i urge americans in affected areas to continue to listen for the guidance and direction of their state and local officials. before the storm made landfall, the department of homeland security and fema worked very closely with our state and local partners as well as volunteer organizations to preposition supplies and teams of first responders along the hurricanes project...

Breech bringing the total dam failures to 11. >> we are starting to see the midlands, all of the water is moving to the low country and we will be extremely careful. we are watching this minute by minute. there are people on the ground giving us feedback. so if we are are not in the air looking at it ourselves we have engineers on the ground. >> the devastating flooding is blamed for at least 17 deaths in the carolinass. the fbis investigation to hillary clintons private e-mail server is widenin...